Steve Cliffe a former Stockport councillor was the founder member who started Stockport Heritage and Stockport Heritage Magazine c. 1987. He and his late wife, Jean, co-ordinated the efforts of Stockport Heritage to persuade English Heritage and Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council to support the purchase and restoration of semi-derelict Staircase House, a 15th C. merchant's townhouse, as the town museum.
After many years of campaigning and two fires begun by vandals, the house was restored with a £4 million grant and opened to the public in 2005 as a living example of the development of vernacular architecture in a working building in a northern market town-up until the mid 20th century when it was last inhabited. It has since won Civic Trust and architectural awards as an outstanding example of far-sighted restoration by a local authority.
Steve first became interested in Staircase House after supervising an historic buildings survey in the town during 1983-84. He further developed an interest in the regeneration and interpretation of buildings in Stockport's old town centre when working with the Centre for Environmental Interpretation at Manchester Polytechnic (now Manchester Metropolitan University) in 1986-87 provided a practical framework for the implementation of the project, utilising volunteers and specialist advisors. In his book,Stockport History & Guide, published in 2005,re-issued 2009, he details the hard struggle to get the project off the ground.